736 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1143 



by individual investigators or by the smaller 

 institutions, and the general result is that the 

 worker who desires to cover the literature of 

 his particular field must have access to a col- 

 lection of reprints and excerpts of such ar- 

 ticles, gathered either independently", or by 

 the institution with which he is connected. 

 Thus most investigators have occasion to as- 

 semble and care for a pamphlet collection. 

 The present paper considers some of the ex- 

 pedients commonly employed for this purpose 

 and calls attention to a particular scheme 

 which has been found satisfactory in the care 

 of one collection. 



Before a pamphlet collection can be effi- 

 ciently used it must be properly arranged. 

 The time thus spent will bring ample return 

 in the added facility with which particular 

 papers can be located when they are desired. 

 In addition to this the exercise of a few simple 

 precautions will do much to prolong the life 

 and increase the usefulness of the pamphlets 

 in a library. Dust, strong light and careless 

 handling all help to depreciate the value of 

 pamphlets. As time goes on and by one means 

 or another, the copies of certain papers de- 

 crease in number; those which remain inevi- 

 tably increase in value and become more diffi- 

 cult to obtain. It is needless to insist on the 

 advisability of arresting these losses. 



The methods in use for assorting and con- 

 serving pamphlets are various. Some collec- 

 tions are arranged to satisfy special needs, 

 while others have no further purpose in their 

 organization than that of general convenience. 

 A popular method is to keep the reprints in 

 flat piles on shelves. This, however, does not 

 permit ready location, and removal of single 

 papers from the pile involves a risk of tear- 

 ing either them or the sheets adjacent to them. 

 A second device is to place the pamphlets 

 vertically on a shelf. This makes it possible 

 to remove any desired paper without disturb- 

 ing those adjacent to it. But unless there are 

 frequent vertical partitions for support, the 

 pressure exerted by the weight of the papers 

 on either side makes the removal of thin 

 pamphlets difficult. Both of these methods 

 expose the collection to light and dust. A 



third method is to bind the pamphlets in vol- 

 umes. This obviates the danger of damage 

 by light or dust, but is still open to several 

 serious objections. Chief among these is the 

 difficulty of arranging the papers in a thor- 

 oughly convenient manner for ready refer- 

 ence. Of course where there are a number of 

 papers by a single author these may be readily 

 bound together chronologically in one or more 

 volumes, but where the assortment is varied 

 the problem of assembling for binding is more 

 complex. All of the papers of one author may 

 not be on hand when the binding is done; the 

 contents of bound volumes can not be so 

 readily indexed as can separate papers; and 

 the papers contained therein can not be so 

 easily laid out for study as when separate and 

 unbound. A final objection to binding is that 

 it involves considerably more expense than 

 most of the other modes of filing. 



A fourth method is to place the pamphlets 

 in vertical filing cabinets. This economizes 

 space as regards depth more than any of the 

 other systems here mentioned but the cost of 

 the containers is quite high: — ranking close to 

 or above that of binding the papers in vol- 

 umes, according as the cabinet selected is of 

 the rough " transfer " or highly finished type. 



The last plan we shall notice is one that is 

 probably in more general use than any other, 

 namely, placing the pamphlets in narrow 

 pamphlet cases. These are of three general 

 types. The first resembles a small letter file 

 with a hinged back which completely protects 

 the contents from dust and light. This case 

 is heavier and much more expensive than the 

 others and is slightly more inconvenient to 

 handle because of the necessity of opening the 

 back when removing the contents. The second 

 type has both top and back open and while it 

 will accommodate pamphlets of widely differ- 

 ent sizes it exposes portions of the papers to 

 the harmful action of dust and light. The 

 third type, a box open only at the back, seems 

 by far the most convenient, as when pushed 

 against a wall it is practically dust and light 

 proof, though still permitting ready reference 

 to its contents. Cases 12 inches high, 8 

 inches deep and 2J inches wide, made of a 



